Jiaosun

What is TE20?

TE20 (Jiaosun) is a point on the Triple Energizer channel, sitting in the hair directly above the top of the ear.

It is the twentieth point of the Triple Energizer (San Jiao) channel, which classical maps trace from the ring finger, up the arm and shoulder, and around the ear. The name Jiaosun is usually translated as Angle Vertex or Minute Angle, a reference to the corner of the head just above the ear.

Classical texts list TE20 for problems in that corner of the head: earache and ear fullness, temple headache, swollen cheeks and gums, toothache in the upper jaw, and red or strained eyes. In older practice it was one of the points named for mumps, a swelling of the glands in front of the ear.

Here is the honest verdict on the evidence. No human trial has tested TE20 on its own, by finger pressure or any other method. Acupuncture research on headache and ear symptoms uses multi-point recipes, so nothing in it tells you what this single point does. That places TE20 at the bottom of the evidence grade and in the middle of the traditional tier: every textbook lists it, few treatments lean on it.

Two things worth separating before you read on. A point having two thousand years of standing tells you it was used, not that it works — tradition is not evidence of effect. It is also not evidence of safety; long use does not mean a point suits every person or every condition. Those two statements cover the whole page, and this is the only place they appear.

Everything described here is self-applied finger pressure on the scalp. That is a low-risk thing to do for most people, which is part of why the point is popular in videos. It is still not a treatment for an infected ear, a sudden hearing change or a severe headache, and the sections below say plainly who should leave it alone.

Where is TE20 and how do you find it?

TE20 sits in the hairline directly above the apex of the ear — fold your ear forward and the point lies just above its highest corner.

• Start at the top of your ear. Run a finger up the outer rim of the ear until it curves over at the highest point. That curve is your anchor landmark.
• Fold the ear forward. Press the whole ear gently flat against your face with one hand. The topmost corner of the folded ear points at the spot you want.
• Move up into the hair. Let the ear spring back and slide your fingertip straight up about one fingerwidth, roughly 1.5 to 2 cm, into the hairline above the ear apex.
• Part the hair and feel skin. Push the hair aside so your finger pad rests on scalp, not on strands. You should feel firm bone with a thin layer of muscle over it.
• Check with your jaw. Clench and release your back teeth a few times. The muscle under your fingertip bulges and relaxes — that is the temporalis, the fan-shaped chewing muscle, and TE20 lies over its upper edge.
• Confirm by feel. Steady pressure here usually gives a dull, slightly spreading ache rather than a sharp point. If it feels sharp or hot, you are either pressing too hard or on a tender vessel.

Traditional sources place TE20 within the hairline at the apex of the auricle, which is the description above in older language. Some charts set it a touch forward or back; the apex of the folded ear is the part everyone agrees on, so work from that.

Neighbouring points lie in front of and behind the ear, so if your finger has slipped down level with the ear canal or onto the bony bump behind the lobe, you have left TE20. Come back up above the ear top. The point exists on both sides of the head, and many people find one side more tender than the other.

How do you apply pressure to TE20?

1. Settle first. Sit down, elbows supported on a table or the arms of a chair. Reaching overhead with an unsupported arm makes your shoulder ache long before the technique does anything.
2. Clear the hair. Part your hair with your fingers so the pad of your middle or index finger meets scalp directly. Pressing through a thick tangle just slides around.
3. Use the finger pad only. Press with the flat of the fingertip, never a nail, knuckle or hard object. Keep nails short enough that they do not touch skin.
4. Build pressure slowly. Lean in over three or four seconds until you feel a steady dull ache. Comfortable firmness is the target, not pain, and the scalp needs far less force than a shoulder or foot.
5. Hold or circle. Either hold still for 30 to 60 seconds, or make small circles roughly one per second without dragging the skin back and forth.
6. Release and repeat. Ease off over a couple of seconds, rest for about 20 seconds, then repeat two or three times. Do the same on the other side so your head feels even.
7. Keep sessions short. Two or three rounds, up to three times a day, is plenty. More time does not add benefit and it does leave the scalp sore.
8. Breathe normally. Let your jaw hang loose and unclench your teeth. A tight jaw makes the muscle under the point harder and more tender.

Stop straight away if the pressure brings on sharp pain, a pulsing sore spot, dizziness, visual changes, or a headache that gets worse rather than easier. Stop also if the skin stays red and tender after you finish, and leave the area alone for a day or two.

This is finger pressure only. Nothing on this page involves needles, skin-breaking, burning herbs or suction, and none of those should be attempted on yourself at home.

What is TE20 traditionally used for?

• Ear symptoms. Classical sources name TE20 for earache, a blocked or full feeling in the ear, and ringing in the ears (tinnitus). No controlled trial has tested this point for any ear symptom, so this rests on tradition alone. Persistent tinnitus or hearing loss needs a proper assessment.
• Temple headache. The point sits over the temporalis chewing muscle, and tradition links it to one-sided head pain above and in front of the ear. Trials of acupuncture for migraine and tension headache exist, but they use multi-point protocols and do not isolate TE20, so they say nothing about this point by itself.
• Jaw and chewing-muscle tension. Many people find steady pressure here eases the tight, tired feeling that comes with teeth clenching. That is a plausible local muscle effect rather than a proven one; there is no published human research on TE20 for jaw tension.
• Toothache in the upper jaw. Older texts list TE20 for upper tooth pain and swollen gums. This is historical practice with no supporting trials. Tooth pain has a cause that a dentist needs to find, and pressure does not treat decay or infection.
• Swollen cheek and mumps. TE20 appears in classical writing on mumps, a viral swelling of the glands near the ear. That is a record of what practitioners once did, not evidence that it helped, and mumps today is a matter for a doctor.
• Eye strain and red eyes. Some charts extend TE20's reach to the eyes because of channel pathways rather than anatomy. Evidence here is absent, and the claim is weaker than the ear and temple ones even within tradition.

Across all of these the pattern is the same. The traditional record is long and consistent, and the human evidence grade is insufficient, because nobody has run the study. Treat anything you feel as short-term comfort, not as treatment of an underlying problem.

Are there tips for using TE20 effectively?

• Use the ear-fold trick every time. Folding the ear forward and working up from its highest corner is faster and more reliable than eyeballing the hairline. Re-find the point each session rather than trusting memory.
• Work both sides. Treating only the sore side often leaves the head feeling lopsided. Give each side the same number of rounds, even if one is quieter than the other.
• Unclench your jaw first. Let your teeth part slightly and your tongue rest low. The muscle under TE20 softens noticeably, and the pressure feels less sharp.
• Warm the area beforehand. A warm flannel held against the side of the head for a minute makes the scalp more comfortable to press. Warm, not hot, and never on broken or inflamed skin.
• Go lighter than you think. The scalp is thin and sits straight on bone. The force you would use on a calf muscle is far too much here, and bruising a scalp is easy.
• Keep a simple note. Jot down when you pressed and what happened over a week or two. It is the only honest way to tell a real pattern from a good day.
• Mind what is in the way. Remove glasses with thick arms, and work around a hearing aid, hair clips or recent hair treatments rather than pressing over them.
• Pair it with the obvious fixes. Water, sleep, screen breaks and a dentist's view on night-time clenching do more for temple and jaw pain than any point. Pressure is an add-on, not a substitute.
• Stop at the first sharp signal. Sharp pain, a throbbing vessel under the finger, dizziness or a worsening headache all mean stop for the day. Pushing through does no good.

One practical limit worth accepting early: if a week or two of sensible use changes nothing, TE20 is probably not your answer. That is a normal result for a single acupressure point, and it is better to find out quickly.

What do people get wrong with TE20?

• Expecting a cure. The commonest error by far. TE20 will not cure tinnitus, migraine, toothache or an ear infection, and anyone promising that is selling something.
• Pressing hair, not scalp. Rubbing a handful of hair feels like something and does nothing precise. Part the hair so the finger pad lands on skin.
• Sliding down beside the ear. Many people drift to the level of the ear canal or onto the bone behind the lobe. Those are different points; TE20 is above the ear top, in the hairline.
• Using far too much force. The scalp sits on bone with little padding. Heavy thumb pressure leaves a tender, bruised patch that lasts for days.
• Using a nail or a tool. Nails, pen caps and massage sticks concentrate force on a tiny area and can break the skin. Finger pads only.
• Ignoring a throbbing temple. A vessel you can feel pulsing, especially one that is tender and ropy, is a reason to see a doctor, not a reason to press harder.
• Treating an ear infection at home. Ear pain with discharge, fever or sudden hearing change is a medical problem. Delaying care to try pressure is the one mistake here that can cost you.
• Quitting after ten seconds. A brief jab gives nothing. If you are going to try the point, give it 30 to 60 seconds a round, a few rounds, over a couple of weeks.
• Marathon sessions. The opposite error. Ten minutes of grinding on the same spot produces soreness, not benefit.
• Assuming old equals safe. Age of a point says nothing about whether it suits your skin, your medication or your current symptoms.

What does the research on TE20 actually say?

There is essentially nothing. We found no published human trial that tested TE20 (Jiaosun) on its own, by finger pressure or any other method, for ear symptoms, headache, jaw pain or anything else.

What does exist is research on acupuncture for conditions in the same region, mainly migraine and tension-type headache. Those are mostly needling trials using fixed or individualised multi-point recipes, often including points around the head and neck. Even where such a trial reports benefit, it cannot tell you what one point contributed, and it cannot be read across to pressing that point with a finger at home.

It is also worth knowing how the broader acupressure literature looks, because it sets expectations. Most acupressure studies are small, run for a short time, and cannot blind participants, who obviously know whether a finger is pressing on them. Those designs tend to overstate effects, especially for symptoms like pain and ringing in the ears that shift with attention and expectation. PC6 and nausea is the one area with genuinely solid controlled human evidence; TE20 has nothing comparable, and nothing comparable has been attempted.

So what does the absence mean? Not that TE20 is useless, and not that it is proven useless. It means nobody has done the work, and that any benefit you notice is unverified and could be short-lived relief, natural fluctuation in your symptoms, or expectation. That is an honest description, not a dismissal.

Practically, it leaves TE20 as a low-risk thing to try for comfort if your doctor or dentist has already looked at the underlying problem. It is not a reason to postpone an assessment for tinnitus, hearing loss, recurring one-sided headache or dental pain. If better evidence appears, this section will change; today there is none to report, and we will not invent a citation to fill the gap.